#robertkolker

Oprah’s Book Club, April, 2020 Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

from There’s a Book for That reviewer Debbie:

As we are globally witnessing something only seen before in movies, today’s social isolation - necessitated by COVID 19 -  affords us another grand wonder, Hidden Valley Road. If it were fiction this true story would never make it to the screen, for it is not to be believed!

Who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall to witness the unimaginable story of a family wherein half of the children eventually develop schizophrenia? As if giving birth and raising a family of 12 children isn’t crazy in and of itself, the true madness lays in the mental illness afflicting six of the ten boys and what can be considered the neglect of the remaining healthy children.  This is a narrative of profound sadness, suffering, hurt, abuse, neglect, confusion, tenacity, determination, and ultimately acceptance, forgiveness and tinges of hope.

After reading this book, I’m about to have Siri dial Dr. Pearlman to cancel therapy altogether because this story makes me rejoice in my trauma as the middle child of three!  Many might be quick to cast Mimi and Don as villains here, I mean, really, who celebrates the end of WWII for 20 years? Joking (and the not funny subject of mental illness) aside, some of the trauma and abuse in this family is made possible simply because of its size.  I went from admiring matriarch Mimi’s artistic attributes to anger for myriad, obvious reasons and ultimately ended up applauding her fortitude, strength and unwavering commitment. Like many dads of this time, Don is a minor player and he is barely yellow carded for playing hooky as well as playing the field.  And it’s no wonder, thank you Dr. Freud (and the world), that Mimi bears the burden of blame. Sadly, we have a deep-rooted history of faulting mothers for everything from supermarket tantrums to autism and schizophrenia.

Based on one New Yorker Magazine piece I read years ago, I falsely believed - and wanted to - that schizophrenia was a treatable disease so long as the sufferer adheres to his pharmaceutical regimen. However, in the span of 75 years Hidden Valley Road provides a fascinating peek into the way one family copes with the devastation and limited choices brought on by a disease of this magnitude and nature as well as a deep enough history of schizophrenia, its study, clinical research and treatment. Sadly, with the coalescence of many factors, Hidden Valley Road’s saga included, it’s impossible to continue believing in magic pills.

It’s no wonder I quickly passed this engaging page-turner on to my daughter’s girlfriend and the line of, “can I read it next?” is quite long! It’s only apt that Hidden Valley Road be the extraordinary book I grabbed for first during this extraordinary world event.

Watch Oprah’s video announcement here

Purchase tickets here.

This event takes place in our Jersey City location and is ticketed. 

Event starts 7:30pm

Tickets: $10.00 (redeemable as a $10 gift card which can be used against any purchase at WORD Bookstores)

Interweaving his account of the Steven Avery trial at the heart of Making a Murderer with other high profile cases from his criminal defense career, attorney Jerome F. Buting explains the flaws in America’s criminal justice system and lays out a provocative, persuasive blue-print for reform. Over his career, Jerome F. Buting has spent hundreds of hours in courtrooms representing defendants in criminal trials. When he agreed to join Dean Strang as co-counsel for the defense in Steven A. Avery vs. State of Wisconsin, he knew a tough fight lay ahead. But, as he reveals in Illusion of Justice, no-one could have predicted just how tough and twisted that fight would be—or that it would become the center of the documentary Making a Murderer, which made Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey household names and thrust Buting into the spotlight. Buting’s powerful, riveting boots-on-the-ground narrative of Avery’s and Dassey’s cases becomes a springboard to examine the shaky integrity of law enforcement and justice in the United States, which Buting has witnessed firsthand for more than 35 years. From his early career as a public defender to his success overturning wrongful convictions working with the Innocence Project, his story provides a compelling expert view into the high-stakes arena of criminal defense law; the difficulties of forensic science; and a horrifying reality of biased interrogations, coerced or false confessions, faulty eyewitness testimony, official misconduct, and more. Combining narrative reportage with critical commentary and personal reflection, Buting explores his professional and personal motivations, career-defining cases—including his shocking fifteen-year-long fight to clear the name of another man wrongly accused and convicted of murder—and what must happen if our broken system is to be saved. Taking a place beside Just Mercy and The New Jim Crow, Illusion of Justice is a tour-de-force from a relentless and eloquent advocate for justice who is determined to fulfill his professional responsibility and, in the face of overwhelming odds, make America’s judicial system work as it is designed to do.